Herontales
by saachichatters
Summary: Herontales about Herondales. Jace, Clary, and singletons Will and Tessa, all in the same teeny apartment? What fun!
1. Author's note

**Author's note:** This is a story that I came up with, inspired by a one-shot I read set in a similar AU. This is modern day, magic-less New York, and Jace, Clary, Will and Tessa all live together. It was originally supposed to be just a one-shot, but I decided it would work better as a longer, divided story. I'm thinking I'll add more stories of the lives of these four living together, maybe bring in more characters from both series. Also, the name is shit so please message me if you have any ideas, and let me know if you want more! Thanks.


	2. In which Jace is irritating

"OYE! Jace! Get out here, we're late!"

William Herondale stood in the hallway of his shared apartment, dressed in black from head to toe. It was boy's night. But Jace, his cousin/housemate/best friend, was late.

"JACE!"

Nothing. Bloody little git.

"JA-"

"Shut up!"

Jace Wayland appeared at the end of the hall, wearing a shirt and trouser combo that was way too fancy for boy's night. Holding. A. Flower.

"Jace, I don't think you understand boy's night. We're going out clubbing. Not on a romantic date to Paulo's. I'm flattered, really, but you have a girlfriend."

"Yes, and this is for her," Jace replied guiltily, "I… I'm sorry mate, but we're going to have to cancel boy's night."

"What? Why? "

"I fucked up. Yesterday was our anniversary… I forgot."

"God, you idiot. Has she broken up with you? Are you going to go grovel for mercy? You're going to need more than that flower."

"I am not going to grovel for mercy. I'm making her dinner… Tonight."

The little shit.

"One does not simply cancel boy's night."

Clary appeared from the depths of the apartment and breezed coolly past the two of them without a glance. Jace watched her walk away, like a wounded puppy, before turning back to Will. Pathetic.

"Fine. This time. But never again."


	3. In which Clary giggles

Clary brushed past her boyfriend, fighting to keep a straight face, until she burst into her best friend Tessa's room and collapsed into peals of laughter. Startled, Tessa looked up from her laptop, taking off her headphones.

"Um… Are you okay," she crawled forward on the bed to see Clary hunched over and shaking with giggles, "Oh wait, is this about Jace again?"

Clary nodded, stifling her laughter.

"He's bought it completely! He's bought flowers and everything. It's kind of adorable actually."

"But I thought you were actually mad at him."

"I am actually mad at him, but not as mad as he thinks I am. I mean, look at what I found on the bedside table this morning."

Clary pulled out a small pink square of paper with neat, cursive writing printed on it.

"An invite? To 'a candlelit dinner for two at home'! That's so sweet!"

"Exactly! He really thinks he's in trouble about this."

"Still, that's going to be so romantic."

Clary giggled, blushing.

"Wait a minute," Tessa looked at the invite again, frowning at the date, "This is tonight."

"Yeah."

"At home."

"Uh-huh."

"But we had plans for tonight! We were going to lounge around watching movies and eating junk. I even bought cup noodles."

"Oh Tessa," Clary looked at her sheepishly, "I'm sorry. We can do it tomorrow."

"Or you could just do it without me, like you were planning to in the first place."

"But your dinner is at home. Which means I can't be here."

"Uh… yes, that's true."

"But I don't want to go out."

"But you never go out. Maybe this could be good for you?"

"And where am I supposed to go?"

"Anywhere! Go watch a movie. Go to a pub and hook up with a tall beautiful stranger."

Tessa glanced at her reflection in the mirror hanging on her cupboard door. Her brown hair was sloppily tied into a tangled bun, and she was dressed in an oversized Marvel t-shirt and ratty pajama pants. She did not look like the kind of person who should be in pubs. She did not look like the kind of person who should even leave the house.

"Come on Tessa. You'll enjoy it. Please?" Clary tilted her head and blinked her giant green eyes, pleading.

Tessa imagined walking into a pub in the little black dress she'd gotten for Christmas.

"I guess…"

"Yes! Thank you so much Tessa, I swear I will make this up to you! You won't regret this!"

Tessa already was.


	4. In which Will plays the white knight

Cancelling boy's night. The cheek! Will swung a leg over his bike, grumbling about Jace's betrayal under his breath. But it only took a few minutes of shooting through the snowy streets of the city for Will to get his spirit back.

Brown buildings, grey pavement, and white (well, whitish) snow blurred into a smudge in his peripheral vision, and the distant sounds of city life zipped into screaming wind in his ears. And, all of a sudden, the dull darkness of the quieter region of New York was replaced by the sudden brightness of Broadway. Almost triumphant, he burst into the explosion of colour and sound that was the bustling inner city. Parking his bike between two ridiculously expensive cars, he set off looking for the perfect club in which to spend the night. (And a bit of the morning.)

Finally, he settled on a small new shiny club. It smelled like his vomit and sounded like there was a robot orgy going on inside. Obviously the best choice.

Muscling his way through the throng, he made his way to the bar. Within minutes, his appearance and clear British-ness had been noticed by everyone in the establishment. Within seconds of ordering his drink, he'd been cornered by a rather voluptuous blonde in a rather short dress. And her friends.

The night could turn out great after all.

* * *

Not too far away, a nervous Tessa tottered on the sidewalk in a pair of heels that was gorgeous and a size too small. Clary had stuffed her into the black dress, torched her hair with a blowdryer, slathered her face in 'light makeup', and pushed her into the big bad world. Well actually, she had pushed her into a taxi, but it had the same effect.

Tessa let the taxi driver, a seemingly sweet old man from DC, tell her all about his children and their first bar experiences as he drove her to her imminent doom amongst the nightclubs and partygoers. When she finally stumbled out of the cab, he wished her best of luck and informed her that the best way to stop a man from coming on to her was, curiously, to punch the nose and then the balls.

This adage in mind, she stood shivering on the pavement, assessing the clubs in front of her for potential level of scariness. Truthfully, they were all the same. Eventually, she mustered up her courage and walked into the one directly in front of her, already imagining the way in which she would be eulogized, and the terrible things she would do to Clary after returning to Earth as a ghost.

* * *

With all his might, Will fought to look away, for a brief second, from the blonde's chest. She was giggling drunkenly about his accent and leaning forward with such vigour, that she, essentially, was lying across his lap. He had realized moments ago that she was clearly too far gone in her drunken haze for him to do much more than talk to her without it being illegal, and was desperately trying to find his way out of the situation. But her chest was really distracting. Like, really, really distracting.

When he finally did muster up the self-control and turn to survey the dance floor, to his surprise, he saw Tessa Gray fighting to get to the bar. His housemate was being pursued, a little too intensely, by a tall guy wearing a Greek fraternity t-shirt. He seemed to be asking her to dance with him, and after trying to ignore him for a bit, she turned, said something inaudible, and tried to walk away. Clearly angry, and probably drunk, the frat guy reached out to grab her shoulder, but by then, Will's blood was boiling and he'd made his way to the scene.

"Hey! Leave her alone!"

The frat guy, who turned out to be far taller than Will had anticipated, glowered at him through beady eyes.

"Wassit toya!"

"Sorry, I didn't quite catch that."

"Wassit toya!"

"Really, you should consult an elocution teacher. Your pronunciation is terrible."

"AAAAAAAAARGH!"

A meaty fist swung at Will's head. Ducking, he grabbed Tessa's wrist and bolted to the door as fast he could, not willing to risk a boxing match with a drunk bear, but the drunk bear was very keen, and was trampling behind them.

"SHIT!"

"OhmygodOhmygodOhmygod He's following us! Will!"

They finally stopped running after about a block, and collapsed, panting, on a relatively quieter street.

"Well, that decides it, I'm never going clubbing again. I'm going straight home."

Will scoffed.

"You can't Tess. Jace and Clary are having their little date."

"Fine, then I'm going to find a bookshop and spend the evening there."

"Oh come on Tessa! You've got to have more fight than that."

"Shut up. Why do you care?"

"I really don't. But it's very boring wooing women when there's nobody around to appreciate my skills."

"Asshole."

"Why, thank you."

Tessa giggled. It made a very nice sound.

"Fine. But not that place."

"Yes, definitely not that place."


	5. In which Jace is a romantic fuck

Jace sat on the living room sofa nervously tapping his foot and glancing at his watch. It had been half an hour since his date (more like 'night of sophisticated grovelling') had been due to begin, and Clary still hadn't arrived. Was she just not going to come? Leave him hanging here all night?

No, she had to leave her room at some point. She needed to eat some dinner after all. God, why was he so stressed? _She's in the same house as you for fuck's sake!_ Okay. Everything would be fine. They'd been dating for two years. They'd moved in together. She wasn't going to break up with him now, was she? Over this? Was she?

Shit shit shit. Okay. Stay calm. He'd just go to her room. Knock on the door. Ask her if she was ready? No, what if she got mad at him for rushing her? Maybe just knock? Yes, okay, just go to her door and knock.

Just as he was about to stand to make his way to her room, she burst into the room, looking extremely flustered and absolutely radiant in a dark green dress, with her red hair cascading over her shoulders.

"Sorry, god, I'm so late, I wasn't able to find a dress that I actually looked good in, nearly changed out of this one, it looks so drab, but I ran out of time, god-"

"It's okay. You look beautiful."

She noticed his gaze and blushed before remembering she was supposed to be mad at him. Masking her expression, she looked to the kitchen door.

"So, dinner…"

Collecting himself, Jace shook his head.

"Actually, tonight, we are not having our candlelit dinner in the kitchen." He picked their coats off the rack and held hers out. The gesture confused her enough that she let him help her into the coat and take her hand.

"Tonight, we dine on the roof," he led her up the stairs and motioned for her to open the door at the top. She slowly pushed it open, stepped into the cold air, and gasped.

The centre of the roof had been transformed into a huge pillowfort, made of bedsheets draped around tentpoles, covered with fairy lights and tinsel.

"Um, did I say candlelit dinner? I meant starlit picnic."

"Oh my god Jace."

He stuck his hands in his pockets, sheepish.

"Do you like it?"

She nodded, unable to turn away from the sight.

"You haven't seen the best part yet," He took her hand and took her into the fort. The inside was covered in fluffy carpet and pillows. A picnic basket and camping lantern lay in one corner, and the entire front of the fort was open to the outside, looking over the New York skyline.

"Oh my god," she repeated, laughing, "Did you do all this yourself?"

"Uh, yeah. I was too embarrassed to ask Will for help."

She giggled.

"Did you really think I was this mad at you?"

"Wait, you weren't?"

"Of course not doofus!" She laughed at his confused expression.

"I thought you were about to break up with me!"

"I would never break up with you. You had to have known that."

"Um, no, clearly I didn't."

She stifled her laughter upon seeing the hurt in his green eyes. (Eyes that looked gorgeous tonight, by the way. Like his hair. And arms. Um, back to the story.) She sat on the soft floor of the fort.

"Okay, I'm sorry. I love you. Now can we have this amazing picnic? Pretty please?"

Shaking his head, he sat down, mostly relieved she wasn't actually going to move out and leave him forever.

"Why do I even date you?" he laughed.

"I honestly don't know."

"Shut up," he pulled her close by the waist and kissed her, "Hm, first post-fight kiss, always heavenly."

She smiled and pulled away.

"Right, what are we eating?"

 ** _Author's note:_** _Okay, we need to have a talk. First, thanks t everyone who's followed or favourited, and I'm sorry I will 100% post more often! Also, while writing this, I realised I was stopping myself from writing anything overly fluffy or romantic and trying to avoid descriptions of beautiful eyes and shit in detail because I'm v embarrassed and think its totally cheesy. BUT IT MAKES THE STORY SO CUTE AND ROMANTIC! So, please let me know if y'all are cool with that shit and I will include it. Also, um, thoughts on smut?_


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